Type-chase for making matrix-plates.



No. 707,522. Patented- Aug. I9, I902;

J. R. REYNOLDS.

TYPE GHASE FOR MAKING MATRIX PLATES.

(Application filed. Dec. 5, 1901.3

(No iolodel.)

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JOHN R. REYNOLDS, OF HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO GOODSON GRAPHOTYPE COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF NFAV JERSEY.

TYPE-CHASE FOR MAKING MATRIX-PLATES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 707,522, dated August 19, 1902.

Application filed December fi, 1901. Serial No. 84;,778. N model.)

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN R. REYNOLDS, a citizen of the UnitedStates of America, and a resident of Hartford, in the county of Hartford and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Type-Chases for Matrix-Plates, of which thefollowing is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in chases or forms for holding type, matrices,

and similar objects for locating and maintaining them in proper alinement and register with each other or with the indexing de vices employed for bringing the individual type or matrix into exact predetermined position.

It is desirable to preface the detailed description of this invention by a brief statement of the conditions under which these matriX-plates are made and used and their relation to cooperating devices with which they are employed.

One of the principal uses of these matrixplates is in connection with type casting and composing machines, a separate platebeing employed for each font or style of type to be cast and composed by that machine. Each matrix-plate usually contains upon its face a separate mold or impression of the face of each and every character of its particular font or style of type. The matrix plate is mounted upon the casting andcomposing machine with its face closely adjacent to a mold for casting the bodies of the type and 5 is usually mounted upon two carriages or slides, which are adapted to move in directions at right angles to each other and to carry the matrix-plate in the plane of its own face, so that by the proper movement of these slides 0 any one of the impressions or molds in the face of the matrix may be brought into coincidence-with the body-mold, the latter being adjusted during that movement to suit the required width of the character to be cast. 5 Each impression in the matrix-plate must be centered with rapidity and extreme accuracy over the body-die, and the respective movements of the slides are controlled by various devices in different machines. In most cases, however, in addition to these moving agencies for the slides and because of the difficulty of moving and stopping them With the requisite speed and accuracy an index-plate is attachedat the back of the matrix-plate, provided with index-holes arranged to correspond with the matrix impressions, each of which has therefore its own index-hole, into which a tapering pin is projected to complete the accurate centering of the matrix impression with its bodymold. These matrix plates are usually made by the electrical deposition of copper upon the face of a form composed of master-type, which are arranged and spaced as accurately as possible in parallel rows and columns at right angles to each other. It is, however, found to'be extremely difficult, if not impossible, with present methods to space and aline and lock up these original or master type in a form with sufficient accuracy to enable the ma- 7o trix plates made therefrom to be interchangeably used or even to be used at all in connection with a standard index-plate. It is exceedingly difficult to lock up a column of the most perfect type and spaces twice to any exact predetermined position in spacing and alinement in rows and columns which are exactly at right angles or exactly at any predetermined angle with each other with all the type standing squarely on their feet. This difficulty is greatly increased by the circumstance that the master-type and spaces oftencontain certain original errors, which must be taken into accountand removed or compensated for in arranging a form or setup from which to make these matrix-plates. The most carefully selected type-faces are sometimes found to be twisted or not uniformly centered or not perfectly square with relation to their respective bodies. The typebodies and spaces also, even in so-called selfspacing type, are found to vary to an appreciable extent in thickness and parallelism, and these variations, although minute in the case ofindividual type,are liab'leto be considerable 5 in the aggregate by cumulation or otherwise. Moreover, the slightest departure from perfeet parallelism or the presence of particles of dirt are liable to carry the type 06 their feet in the locking-up operation, thereby car- I00 rying some of the type-faces out of coincideuce and parallelism with their proper plane. Although the errors of spacing and alinement might be too slight to be noticed in a printed impression taken directly from the entire form of master-type as thus assembled and locked up, yet when the matrix-plate made therefrom is rapidly moved in four difierent directions and more or less inaccurately centered and the individual characters cast therefrom are transposed in sequence and position, as they must be, in the subsequent composition produced by the type-casting machine these errors are doubled and otherwise brought into prominence. It is sufficiently diffic-ult to cast and compose well alined and spaced and true printing-surfaces by machinery at a commercially satisfactory speed even when the matrix impressions are perfectly spaced and alined without superadding original errors of the matrix itself by inaccurate spacing or alinement or by distorted locking up of the master-type in the form from which these matrices are made. On account of these inaccuracies and variations in type and spaces it is practically impossible to space and aline and lock them up in a form in any exact predetermined position, so as to conform with astandard index-plate. For this reason itis customary to adjust,aline, and lock up the type in a form as accurately as possible for each plate and then make a special index for that plate, locating the holes in the index in accordance with the varying positions of the matrix impressions. This, although a slow and difficult matter, is much easier than to ar range the type in sufficiently accurate conformity with a standard index-plate, there being no practicable way of testing their accuracy of position by gaging or inspection of the form when finally set with infinite pains and locked up as accurately as possible. The only possible conclusive test of accuracy of the form would be to make a trial matrix and test it in the casting and composing machine, assembling the characters in numerous combinations, then readjusting the master-form to suit the errors thus discovered, then making a new matrix-plate and repeating the test,and so on until satisfactory results are reached. Therefore it is customary and under present methods necessary, as above intimated, to make a new and special index-plate for each matrix-plate, and if the matrix-plate of a particular font or style of type should be injured or destroyed it would be necessary to make not only a new set-up form and matrix-plate, but also a new index-plate in conformity with the new errors of position of the characters. The making of index-plates in this way is an extremely slow and difficult operation, and at its best is only a close approximation to the true positions, so that the "type when cast and composed in their various transposed positions often plainly exhibit on the printed page the errors of position. In my present invention these objections and v the side 7.

difficulties are obviated by providing. a form or chase in which each individual mastert-ype is located, spaced, alined, and squared independently of the others, so that the errors of each piece of type are confined to that particular type and are not transmitted to the others to produce cumulative error.

This invention is herein shown to be embodied in a chase for holding an assembled form or set-up of one hundred characters in uniform spacing and alinement in two directions at right angles to each other.

Figure 1 of the drawings is a plan view, and Fig. 2 is a side view, of my improved form of chase. In Fig. 2 the adjacent side is removed to show the partitions more plainly. Fig. 3 is a front view of the chase in section, taken on the line 3 8 of Fig. 1.

The bed-plate 5 is provided with the sides 6, 7, and 8, which may be attached to or integral with the base. I prefer, however, for constructive reasons to make them in separate pieces and attach them to the base by means of dowels, as herein shown. The inner face 9 of the side piece 7 is utilized as the base or gaging-surface for the first column of type, while the inner face 10 of the side piece 6 is similarly employed as the base for alining the first row or line of type, and these inner faces 9 and 10 are made in the same angular relation to each other as that between the direction of movement of the two slides upon which the matrix is subsequently carried in the machine, which is usually ninety degrees. As a means for spacing the individual pieces of type in the respective rows the bed-plate 5 is provided with a series of upwardly-projecting abutments or partitions 12, forming separate compartments,which are utilized for receiving and locating the respective type, thus forming independent bases for this purpose, each piece being thereby located at once in its correct position Without being influenced by variations in any other piece. The width of these abutments or partitions in the setwise direction of the line is determined by the thickness of the type to be inserted be-,

tween each abutment and its left-hand neighbor. The right-hand sides 13 of these abutments are herein regarded as the base or working sides, and where, as in the present instance, the spacing of the type is equal throughout the line the base sides 13 are spaced at equal distances from the face 9 of The length-of these abutments or partitions 12 is preferably made equal to the pointwise dimensions of the bodies of the type employed. When the rows of partitions 12 are thus arranged one below the other with equal spacing in each, the type are arranged not only in straight lines transversely or setwise, but in straight columns vertically or pointwise. It is customary and desirable for various reasons connected with the construction and operation of the type casting and composing machines with which the matrix-plates are to be employed to assort the type in these vertical columns in accordance with the respective widths ofthe characters, the wider characters being here in shown to be provided for at the lefthand side of the chase, adjacent to the side 7, the succeeding columns being arranged in the order of the decreasing thickness of the type-bodies. This classification and arrangement of the widths of type in the vertical columns is convenient not only for the ultimate uses in the machine, but also for the construction of my improved chase, since it brings the sides of the partitions 12 into coincident planes, and thereby enables them to be dressed out with a planer-tool or with milling-cutters, the sides 6, 7, and 8 being removed during such an operation. In order to establish a base for each of the succeeding horizontal rows or lines of type, the partitions are planed or otherwise cut transversely to receive the rules 14, which when inserted not only form new and independent bases for each line of the master-type, but also form contact-pieces between the adjacent rows, by means of which they may be locked up from one side, which is herein shown as the lower side of the chase, by any suitable means, as the quoin 16 and the intermediate block or front piece 17. The lower sides 15 of these rules form true bases for establishing the separate pieces of type in each row in a straight line, and the parallel relation of these rules establishes a parallel relation for their respective rows of type.

In setting up a form of master-type in this chase it is only necessary to arrange the type in the proper order in their required positions, beginning with the uppermost line of the chase, as shown in Fig. 1. After filling out the line one of the rules 14 is inserted, and the next line of master-type is put in place between the partitions or abutments of the second row, and so on until the chase is full or until the number of type required for the form are thus set up. Then the form is locked up by means of the intermediate block 17 and the quoin 16 or in any convenient well-known way, after which the matrix-plate is made from the face of the form by electric deposition or otherwise. The type-face impressions of matrix-plates made from these forms will all be uniform in alinement and spacing in both directions, so that any nu mber of these matrix-plates may be interchangeably use in connection with a single standard index-plate having its index-holes spaced and alined in accordance with the spacing and alinement of the gaging sides 18 and 15 of the respective partitions.

It is not necessary to make the height of the partitions 12 equal to the length of the bodies of standard type, but is generally preferable to cut off the lower ends of the type considerably, so as to lessen the work of squaring and otherwise dressing the bodies of the type into proper relation to the faces thereof. Furthermore, this shortening of the type-bodies permits and, in fact, requires a corresponding reduction in height of the partitions 12, which is desirable for the chase itself, since it thus correspondingly reduces the extent of the surfaces to be accurately produced and also makes a stiffer partition.

In case of error in composing this form it may be corrected by merely unlocking the form and removing any one or more of the type without disturbing or readjusting the others, inasmuch as any single type may be removed or replaced or another piece substituted without influencing or affecting the position of any of the other pieces of the form.

Any number of type less than the full number may be composed in this form and may be set in any desired relation, it being only necessary for locking-up purposes to fill up by means of blank type-bodies or spaces any blank spaces that may intervene in the lines of the locking-up pressure.

It will be obvious that the relations or positions here shown may be reversed or transposed in many ways which will suggest themselves to the user to meet varied requirements of particular cases.

I claim as my invention 1. A chase or form for type, consisting of a base, a series of projecting independent abutment-s integral with the base for locating the type in lines and columns, and means for looking the type against the abutments.

2. A chase or form for type, consisting of a base, a series of projecting abutments integral with the base, of a width substantially equaling the pointwise dimensions of the type, and means for locking the type against the abutments.

3. A chase or form for type, consisting of a base, a series of projecting abutments integral with the base, of a width substantially equaling the pointwise dimensions of the type, and of varying thicknesses inversely proportioned to the setwise dimensions of the respective type, and means for locking the type against the abutments.

at. Aform orchase for thepurpose specified, provided with fixed partitions for locating the respective pieces of type in predetermined setwise relation and alinement, in accordance with a standard index-plate.

5. A form or chase for the purpose specified,

provided with a series of fixed partitions for independently locating the respective pieces of type in alined vertical columns and setwise spacing, in accordance with a standard indexplate.

6. A type-chase, provided with a series of fixed partitions for independently locating the pieces of type in alined vertical columns, and in alined horizontal lines, spaced in accordance with a standard index-plate, and means for locking the type against the partitions.

7. A type-chase provided with a series of fixed partitions for independently spacing the individual type in straight lines and alined IIO ' columns, rules located between the partitions,

for spacing and alining the type thereof in lateral lines at right angles with the columns, and means for locking the type against the partitions.

8. A type-chase, provided with a series of fixed partitions forming compartments for independently locating the separate pieces of type in a'lined vertical columns,the partitions being interrupted by transverse seats for rules, for alining and separating the lines,and means for locking the type against the partitions. 3

9. A type-chase, provided with a series of partitions substantially equaling in Width the pointwise dimensions of the type-bodies, separated by a series of transverse seats for rules, for separating and alining the lines.

10. A type-chase, provided with a series of partitions of a Width substantially equaling the pointwise dimensions of the type-bodies, and of a thickness substantially equaling the desired linear spacing of the type, less the respective thicknesses of those type.

11. A type-chase, provided with a series of separate partitions arranged in columns, separated by transversely-disposed rules, the thickness of the partitions in the respective columns increasing from one side to the other of the chase, in accordance with the decreasing thicknesses of the type to be held therein.

12. A type-chase, provided with a series of fixed partitions separated by transverselydisposed rules forming separate compartments for independently locating the respective pieces of type in alined vertical columns and lines, and means for locking the type against the partitions.

13. A type-chase, provided with a series of column-partitions separated by a series of transversely-disposed line-rules forming separate compartments for the respective pieces of type, the compartments for the succeeding columns being arranged in the order of their decreasing width.

JNO. R. REYNOLDS.

Witnesses:

W. H. HONISS, CARRIE M. BRECKLE. 

